Admiral Michael Mullen made a surprise visit to Pakistan yesterday. and according to the US Embassy he “reiterated the US commitment to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty“. Just hours later, US drones fired four missiles into South Waziristan, killing at least seven and injuring three others.

At the same time, speaking at the Air Force Association’s annual conference, CIA Director Michael Hayden suggested that his agency is trying to “tickle” militant groups with missile strikes in an attempt to provoke a reaction. He said there was much his agency could learn from the way in which the groups respond.

Webmaster's Commentary:

You have GOT to be flipping kidding me: Hayden is quoted as saying the CIA is trying to "..."tickle" enemy groups to provoke a reaction, often with missile strikes targeting just an individual.
"
""We use military operations to excite the enemy, prompting him to respond. In that response we learn so much," said Hayden, a retired Air Force general who has led the CIA since 2006."

That Hayden could even use the word "tickle" to describe the death and injuries to non-combatants hit in CIA-orchestrated strikes is sickening. Maybe, he thinks they die laughing?!?

And what do we "learn", Michael Hayden, from the responses of these militants, when they are left alive? I can tell you, sir, and I don't have to be a military analyst to understand this.

They grieve at the loss of their mothers, their sisters, brothers, their children, and their friends you have murdered. And you have radicalized them even further against both the US and the current Pakistani government.

And by the way: you and Admiral Mullen need to have a conversation (if in fact he is still speaking to you) about the fact that ordering a strike against militants in a country, when you know he's in a country assuring its leadership we will respect its territorial integrity, destroys any last microscopic shred of US integrity accredited to it by the rest of the world.